Internet marketing and fan influence on Babylon 5
Encyclopedia
J. Michael Straczynski
Joseph Michael Straczynski , known professionally as J. Michael Straczynski and informally as Joe Straczynski or JMS, is an American writer and television producer. He works in films, television series, novels, short stories, comic books, and radio dramas. He is a playwright, a former journalist,...
, who participated in a number of Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
venues to discuss elements of his work with his fans, including the rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5 Usenet
Usenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
newsgroup, where he continued to communicate as late as March 2007. This flow of information and feedback had a substantial impact on Babylon 5
Babylon 5
Babylon 5 is an American science fiction television series created, produced and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers on a space station named Babylon 5: a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and conflict during the years 2257–2262...
, as well as Straczynski's other shows and his fan base. This interaction pre-dated the coining of the term "blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
", but is functionally similar.
Forums
Babylon 5 was one of the first shows to employ Internet marketing to create publicity among online readers far in advance of the airing of the pilot episode. Straczynski participated in online communities on UsenetUsenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
(in the rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated is a moderated Usenet newsgroup that focuses on the science fiction television series Babylon 5 and the works of writer J. Michael Straczynski. It was spun off from its un-moderated version, rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5, in 1996...
newsgroup), and the GEnie
GEnie
GEnie was an online service created by a General Electric business - GEIS that ran from 1985 through the end of 1999. In 1994, GEnie claimed around 350,000 users. Peak simultaneous usage was around 10,000 users...
and Compuserve
CompuServe
CompuServe was the first major commercial online service in the United States. It dominated the field during the 1980s and remained a major player through the mid-1990s, when it was sidelined by the rise of services such as AOL with monthly subscriptions rather than hourly rates...
systems before the web came together as it exists today. Straczynski had long participated in many online forums since the 1980s, and is widely credited as being the first notable artist and celebrity to interact with fans online, even before the advent of the world wide web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
.
This free interaction with his fans was not without its problems. A third season episode ("Passing Through Gethsemane") was originally developed a year earlier in 1994 but had to be "scuttled" because a fan posted a story idea on GEnie that matched the plot of the episode. The story was not put back into the production pipeline until Straczynski could obtain a signed legal release from the fan. The moderated Usenet
Usenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
group was created as a consequence, specifically to filter out story ideas. Straczynski also asked fans not to engage in fan-fiction while the show was in production, and most fans complied with this request.
On rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated, Straczynski regularly discussed with fans the process of creating and producing the show, the meaning of the work, and the development of the plot. He confirmed or denied fan theories and interpretations of the show, and answered questions – though often cryptically. In November 1995, Straczynski temporarily left the newsgroup due to an increasing number of flames, but returned in December when a process was put in place to filter the threads that reached him.
Fan sites
Babylon 5 also inspired a number of fan sites. One of the first was The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5
The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5 is a fan-run website that includes detailed episode guides and analyses, production history notes, background materials, references, and other information related to the science fiction epic, Babylon 5...
. It was noticed by The Washington Post and acknowledged by Straczynski in a Season 5 DVD commentary. Its root URL at the time, Hyperion, was used on the show as the name of a heavy cruiser
EAS Hyperion
The EAS Hyperion is a fictional starship in the science fiction television series Babylon 5. The EAS Hyperion is seen in the first season two part episode "A Voice in the Wilderness". EAS Hyperion is under the command of Captain Ellis Pierce at the time.The EAS Hyperion is a Hyperion-class heavy...
. It also received early news from the show's copyright holders.
Internet marketing
In 1995, Warner Bros. started the Official Babylon 5 web site which was hosted on the now defunct Pathfinder portal. In September 1995 they hired a fan, Troy RutterTroy Rutter
Troy Rutter is an American actor, author and programmer. He was born in Ames, Iowa where he attended Ames Senior High School and later Iowa State University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communications....
, to take over the site and move it not only to its own domain name at www.babylon5.com, but also to oversee the "Keyword B5" area on America Online. The fans continued to play an important role in the development of the series and the online support campaign is credited with helping persuade former PTEN
Prime Time Entertainment Network
The Prime Time Entertainment Network was a United States television network launched in 1993 by the Prime Time Consortium, a joint venture between Warner Bros. Domestic Television and the Chris-Craft group of independent stations...
station owners to carry the fourth season of the show in 1996.
Over the course of the series, Warner Bros. encouraged the use of pictures and images on fan web sites, and eventually created a home-page community called AcmeCity where users could create a homepage using logos and graphics without fear of lawsuits. Also during this time, Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
executive Jim Moloshok created and distributed electronic trading cards to help advertise the series.
A contest was conducted in conjunction with Sound Source Interactive called the Mystery Alien Sweepstakes, with the grand-prize to portray an alien on the show.
Fan influences
- The Babylon 5 pilot, The GatheringBabylon 5: The GatheringBabylon 5: The Gathering is the pilot movie of the science fiction television series Babylon 5. The telefilm aired on February 22, 1993...
, originally featured music by former PoliceThe PoliceThe Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...
drummer Stewart CopelandStewart CopelandStewart Armstrong Copeland is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the band The Police. During the group's extended hiatus from the mid-1980s to 2007, he played in other bands and composed soundtracks...
. After B5 was greenlighted Straczynski solicited suggestions on GEnie for a replacement composer. After some suggested Tangerine DreamTangerine DreamTangerine Dream is a German electronic music group founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The band has undergone many personnel changes over the years, with Froese being the only continuous member...
member Christopher FrankeChristopher FrankeChristopher Franke is a German musician and composer. From 1971 to 1988 he was a member of the electronic group Tangerine Dream. Initially a drummer with The Agitation, later renamed Agitation Free, his primary focus eventually shifted to keyboards and synthesizers as the group moved away from its...
, that musician was eventually hired. - Straczynski hired John E. HudgensJohn E. HudgensJohn E. Hudgens is an independent director, producer, and editor noted for his short Star Wars fan films and for many Babylon 5 promotional videos....
, a fan of the show, and later the Babylon 5 section sysop on GEnieGEnieGEnie was an online service created by a General Electric business - GEIS that ran from 1985 through the end of 1999. In 1994, GEnie claimed around 350,000 users. Peak simultaneous usage was around 10,000 users...
, to create promotional music videos for the show after seeing the original one Hudgens did on his own. They collaborated on a total of eight, and Straczynski would often use one as his introduction at convention appearances. Straczynski commissioned the fifth one (Welcome to the Third Age) to be his pitch reel to sell the show to TNTTurner Network TelevisionTurner Network Television is an American cable television channel created by media mogul Ted Turner and currently owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner...
. - The spatial location of the B5 station itself is stated as “Grid Epsilon coordinates: 470/18/22.” This came about because Straczynski was touched by an outpouring of support from the GEnieGEnieGEnie was an online service created by a General Electric business - GEIS that ran from 1985 through the end of 1999. In 1994, GEnie claimed around 350,000 users. Peak simultaneous usage was around 10,000 users...
Science Fiction and Fantasy RoundTable (SFRT) community in regards to a potential letter-writing campaign that turned out not to be needed after all. He was still grateful, however, and asked how he could show his appreciation. An SFRT participant suggested placing the station at the 3D spatial coordinates corresponding to the GEnieGEnieGEnie was an online service created by a General Electric business - GEIS that ran from 1985 through the end of 1999. In 1994, GEnie claimed around 350,000 users. Peak simultaneous usage was around 10,000 users...
Page (#470, for original SFRT), CATegory (#18, for Non-Trek SF TV Series), and TOPic (#22, for Babylon 5) of the then-only official B5 Topic on GEnieGEnieGEnie was an online service created by a General Electric business - GEIS that ran from 1985 through the end of 1999. In 1994, GEnie claimed around 350,000 users. Peak simultaneous usage was around 10,000 users...
(the strange capitalization of CATegory and TOPic refers to the fact that GEnieGEnieGEnie was an online service created by a General Electric business - GEIS that ran from 1985 through the end of 1999. In 1994, GEnie claimed around 350,000 users. Peak simultaneous usage was around 10,000 users...
was command-line-based and allowed commands to be abbreviated to three letters). Straczynski agreed and added that info to the series bible used by episode writers. The “Grid Epsilon” part was his own touch, based on the first two initials (which were usually both capitalized) of GEnieGEnieGEnie was an online service created by a General Electric business - GEIS that ran from 1985 through the end of 1999. In 1994, GEnie claimed around 350,000 users. Peak simultaneous usage was around 10,000 users...
itself [since it was originally a GE (General ElectricGeneral ElectricGeneral Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
) property]. - B5 fans on GEnie referred to themselves as "Grid Epsilon Irregulars".
- A fictional chemical substance called Quantium-40 was mentioned after Straczynski conducted a contest online to name the substance.
- A Fresh Aire Restaurant waiter was named David after David Strauss, who came up with the name Quantium-40. Another character was named after a fan who helped raise money when one of the actors had not been paid for his conference attendance.
- Babylon 5 fans on the Internet have popularized the
<*>symbol ("The ASCIIASCIIThe American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that use text...
Jumpgate") as a sort of "secret handshake" to recognize each other online. In 1994, a birthday card for Straczynski was sent around the U.S. to many of the avid posters on the rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon-5 newsgroupNewsgroupA usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users in different locations. The term may be confusing to some, because it is usually a discussion group. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on...
. While the card was being circulated, clues were given on the newsgroup, denoted by the symbol<*>, and the jumpgate symbol continued to be used thereafter, even appearing on fan-produced jewelry.